


Leaf the Monster

by lizard_socks



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Human/Monster Romance, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2020-03-06 03:31:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 9,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizard_socks/pseuds/lizard_socks
Summary: Another story of mine - posted here on the off chance that someone finds one of my fanfics and wants to read more of my stuff. It's a story about a monster who likes to visit the human village but is surprised when one of the humans has a crush on him.





	1. Chapter 1

I remember the first time I visited the human village. It was a cool, windy evening. As I walked through the gate, the guard glanced at me.

"You seem a little underdressed," he said.

"I'll be okay," I told him.

He didn't notice that under my ill-fitting shirt and pants, my body was covered in fur that would keep me warm enough. I had cast a spell on myself to avoid attention. With any luck, nobody would realize I was a monster.

The architecture was amazing. The village was full of two- and three-story buildings, many of them much older than anything in the monster cities. And the streets seemed so much livelier. I strolled through the village's downtown roads, looking at all the shops. Everybody but myself seemed to be in a group of two or three. It was true what they said about humans, I thought to myself. They really _are_ highly social creatures. They experience the world in groups.

It wasn't until my fourth or fifth trip out there that I worked up the courage to socialize with the humans. At the end of the road was a pub. I walked in, smoothed out my tail, and sat down at the bar. A band was playing across the room, but otherwise, the space was dimly lit.

"What'll you have?" the bartender asked. I think I ordered some kind of sausage. (Like most monsters, my body can only digest meat.)

As I finished eating, a young human woman sat down next to me.

"Would you like to dance with me?" she asked.

The bartender looked at us and chuckled. "Ndeye? _You're_ asking someone to dance?"

The woman smiled. "I think he's cute."

We walked over to the other side of the room. She tried to show me how to do a human dance. I had never tried to dance to music before, and I really struggled.

After I stepped on her shoes for the third time, she laughed. "You're not from here, are you?"

I shook my head.

"We all learn this dance in school. You must have come from pretty far away."

"So you've lived here your whole life?" I asked.

"Yeah. My mom and dad are guardians. They fight monsters to keep them from entering the village."

_Uh oh._ I reminded myself that nobody could see my fur, or my tail, or my huge pointy ears. "Do you do that too?"

"I don't have the heart for it," she said. "I think monsters are really cute. Someday I want to visit their villages and meet some of them."

"Maybe I'll go with you," I said. I don't know why I said it – I hardly knew her. I guess I was scared that she would get in trouble if she went alone. But she just smiled.

"I'll see you around," she said.

She packed up her things and headed out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

My next visit to the village was a few days later. I wished I could stay overnight in a hotel, but I knew that leaving fur in the bedsheets would make them suspicious.

It was a cloudy, calm day. I was sitting along the roadside, looking down the hill at the bank of the river. The humans brought food with them. One of them even offered me some carrots, which started a very interesting conversation about the different plants that humans can eat.

As I was examining a tomato slice, I heard a familiar voice and turned around.

"This is the guy from the bar!"

It was Ndeye, the woman from the other night, and she was introducing me to her parents. Whose job was to keep monsters out of the village.

"You're the first guy she's talked about in a long time," her dad said. "She said she didn't get your name."

I couldn't think of a good human name quick enough, so I just told the truth. "My name's Leaf."

"Nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Louis." _Phew._ Apparently Leaf was a human name too.

"We'll go set up the picnic," Ndeye's mom said. "You two can catch up."

The two of them headed down the hill, leaving Ndeye alone with me. She looked at me, smiling, with her hands behind her back.

I thought back to the advice my brother Clay gave me about talking to humans. "Make the conversation about them," he said. "Humans love talking about themselves. That's not a bad thing. Keeps them interested. Keeps the conversation going."

I stood up. "How have you been?" I asked.

"All right," Ndeye said. "I've been practicing magic, but I'm not very good yet."

"What have you been working on?"

"Shapeshifting spells for monsters. I kind of wish I could shapeshift. Too bad we humans are so resistant to magic."

Ndeye sat down on the grass, and so I did as well. It seemed like the natural thing to do.

"I've also been thinking about you," she said.

"Why's that?"

"...I think I kind of have a crush on you."

I looked down at my shirt. "I don't see anything."

"You don't know what a crush is, do you?" She looked surprised.

"One of those sticky orange monsters?"

Ndeye took me aside and whispered. "It's a figure of speech. It means I think I might be in love with you."


	3. Chapter 3

"She _fell in love_ with you?"

Petals, my sister, bounced over to my corner of the room. Our brother Clay followed behind.

"I didn't think I could still be surprised by you, Leaf," he said.

"Come on, Clay. What do I do now?"

The three of us were hanging out in an interior room on the second floor of a dungeon that was under construction. It might have been lonely if it weren't infested with snakes. Clay was the oldest sibling, a four-legged creature with a gray coat of fur like mine. Petals, a cute gelatinous monster with big eyes, was the youngest.

"Well, I'd feel better if you never went back there again," Clay said. "But I can't stop you."

"We're all born in this wilderness with no parents and no guidance," I said. "I need something to focus on."

"That's pretty common," said Petals. "Clay is always happiest when he's working on building a new dungeon."

Clay grabbed one of the snakes with his front right claw and ate it whole. "I guess you just have to tell her you're not interested."

I slumped against the stone wall. "But she'll think I don't like her."

"...You _do_ like her, don't you?" Clay's ears perked up.

"She's friendly. And I admit it, I like the attention."

Petals smiled and snuggled up to me. "You've got an admirer!"

"He can't stay with her, Petals," said Clay.

"I _know_ , Clay." Petals rolled back onto the floor. "He's right, Leaf. You can't let her fall in love with you when she doesn't know you're a monster."

"Can't I just tell her?" I asked.

My siblings stared blankly at me.

"You can't be serious," Clay said flatly.

"But I don't want her to wonder why I left..."

"She'll get over it," Petals said. "She'll be okay. Humans have complex lives, and she can be happy on her own."

I sighed. "I guess you're right. But I feel like I ought to go see her, at least one last time."

Clay walked back over to his corner of the room. "Suit yourself, Leaf."

Petals looked in my eyes.

"He worries about you," she said.

"I know."


	4. Chapter 4

I found Ndeye at a cookout outside someone's house. Not only did my perception spell prevent people from noticing I was a monster, it also seemed to stop most of them from noticing I was even there. But Ndeye saw me right away.

"Leaf?"

I walked up to her. "I don't think we can be in a relationship together. I don't think it'll work."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "If there's anything I can do that would help..."

I put my hands in my pockets. "I just don't think it's a good idea for me to get involved with anyone right now."

A kid came running up to us. She looked like she was four or five years old. Her parents came running behind her.

"You're a monster!" She pointed at me, smiling.

" _Mariama!_ " her mom said. "That's not a nice thing to say."

"But he _is._ "

"No, he's a human, just like all of us." She picked up little Mariama and started to walk away. I couldn't bear to think of how that little girl might feel, knowing that her parents wouldn't believe her...

I turned to look at Ndeye.

"You want to know why we shouldn't be together?" I grabbed my tail and showed it to her, knowing that making her confront it would break through the spell.

"...So you _are_ a monster."

"Wait. Did you _know_?"

She took me aside. "My parents told me the minute you left," she said. "They knew right away. It's easy to see through a spell if you know what to look for, and they've been doing it their whole lives."

"Then why didn't you say something when I showed up here?" I asked.

"I thought it would be easier for you if you thought I didn't know." She sat down on the stairs to the door and looked up at me. "You seemed so comfortable acting human."

I sat down with her. She gave me the meat in her sandwich and I took it without saying a word.

"Why would you come here?" she asked. "There are soldiers everywhere. It's dangerous."

"When you're born as a monster," I told her, "you have to find your own path in life. If you want to make something of yourself, you have to take risks. And all I've ever really wanted is to live here, among the humans."

"But you must know that the other humans won't accept you."

"I don't blame them," I said. "Other monsters might get mad about that, and that's fine. But I don't. A lot of us really are dangerous."

"Well, I like you," said Ndeye. "I'll be at the park tomorrow around lunchtime. I hope you can come."


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, I met Ndeye at the park. The sky was clear, and there were kids playing games on the grass. I bought Ndeye a sandwich, and then we started walking around the area.

"This is the craziest thing I've ever seen," she said. "You're a monster, walking around in a crowd, actually talking to people. And nobody notices a thing."

"It only works because nobody expects to see a monster here," I said. "If they did, I'd be in trouble."

I looked around. Some leaves were falling from a tree; there must have been an animal running around on the branches.

"Do you ever wish you were human?" Ndeye asked.

"Sometimes I wish I were born a human," I told her. "I bet you have a spell that could make me actually look like a human, don't you?"

"Well, _I_ don't," she said. "But it's possible."

We came to a steep downwards slope, and I had to make sure to keep my footing. "That's all right," I told her. "I don't think I'd want that anyway. If I were a human, I'd be a different person. I wouldn't be _me_."

I turned to look at Ndeye.

"What about you? Do you ever wish you were someone else?"

She paused for a bit and thought about it.

"I'm always amazed how different monsters are from each other," she said. "Everyone here seems so similar. Maybe I just don't know them well enough, but sometimes I feel kind of left out."

We reached a plateau in the hill. Below us was another steep decline, and then the bank of the river, which was flowing slowly to the east.

"What's it like being the daughter of two village guardians?" I asked. "Especially since they have to fight monsters so often."

"I can't lie, sometimes it's hard to watch," she said. "But not all of the monsters get a sword taken to them. A lot of them will just run away, and that's fine by us. And once in a while, we find one that's not even the least bit threatening, and... we keep it as a pet."

"Seriously?" I imagined a group of monsters making their way around the house.

"We don't have any right now, though," she said. "Usually you have to cast a couple spells before they're completely safe to have around, and my parents aren't that confident in their own spellcasting skills. I don't think my dad's even touched a wand since grade school."

As we made our way towards the riverbank, I tripped and almost fell. Ndeye quickly grabbed me by the tail. I yelped and grabbed a nearby tree branch.

"Hey, that hurts!" I said.

Ndeye blushed. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I thought you were gonna fall into the-"

She glanced to her right. A crowd of people was gathering on a nearby beach. They were too far away to tell, but I wondered if they were looking at us. At the kid with the tail.

We made our way over to a large tree, and sat down on a rock behind the trunk so they couldn't see us.

"Maybe there's a way for me to spend time here without having to disguise myself," I said.


	6. Chapter 6

When I made my way back to my brother's dungeon, I found him looking over a convoluted system of metal pipes. He noticed me walk in, but didn't look my way.

"I gotta figure out what's going on here," he said.

"Is it leaking?" I asked.

"No. But it should be. This is supposed to be the water dungeon."

Petals poked her head out of one of the pipes.

"I don't think the water pressure is high enough," she said.

Clay groaned. "Now I gotta go to the basement. I really need to get those warp squares up and running..."

He walked over to me and lay down on the floor.

"So how did it go with the human girl?" he asked.

"Well, she found out I was a monster... but she still wants to be my girlfriend."

Petals fell out of the pipe. "Haha!" she said. "We always said you were good-looking for a human – I guess we were right!"

"Leaf," said Clay. "You know you can't keep using the perception spell. The more time you spend over there, the more chances there are for someone to see through it."

"I'm not going to need the spell anymore," I said. "I don't need them to think I'm a human. As long as people aren't threatened by me, I'll be fine."

Petals slithered over. "How are you going to do that?" she asked. "You're tall, you've got claws and fangs-"

Clay suddenly pounced on me.

"You're not seriously considering it, are you?" I saw his eyes looking down at me.

"Considering _what?_ " asked Petals.

I pushed Clay off and sat up. "There's a spell the humans use on monsters," I said.

"To domesticate us," said Clay. "They make us their pets."

I nodded.

"You're... going to be her pet?"

I shrugged. "Listen. My whole life, I've wanted to live my life among humans. If this is what I gotta do, I'm fine with it. And the spell isn't permanent, anyway."

"But once she casts it on you," said Clay, "you'll be too weak to fight back. She can keep you forever if she wants."

"I know!" I stood up. "I don't _want_ to be powerful. I've seen the way they look at me. They're scared. I don't want to be the reason someone acts that way. And if there's something I can do to control it..."

"This isn't about her, is it?" Petals asked. "You've felt this way for a long time."

Clay glanced at Petals, then back at me. "Since when do you care what people think of you? Even the banana monsters next door think you're a little odd. But you've never lost your confidence."

I blinked a few times. I think there might have been tears in my eyes by that point. "I care what humans think," I said. "They were here first. They came here to take refuge. The monsters took their cities, destroyed their art and their buildings... Not a day goes by where I don't think about being a monster, and everything that comes with it."

I sat quietly for a while.

"But I'll never really know what they think of me," I said. "Because I'll never really understand them."


	7. Chapter 7

"Well, this seems a little strange," said Ndeye's mother. "I don't think I've ever seen a monster volunteer to be domesticated."

"Are you sure he really wants to go through with it, Oumou?" her father asked.

"Ndeye says that he's wanted to be around humans his whole life."

Ndeye put on a robe and picked up her wand. "I think we can get away with a temporary spell," she said. "You'll have to walk on all fours, for starters. And I'll need to put a limit on how much of your strength you can use, and get rid of your fangs."

I wagged my tail. "You can make whatever changes you want. I just don't want people to be scared of me."

Ndeye smiled. "Don't worry. I'll make sure that you're not too intimidating."

She stepped back a bit and held out her wand, breathing in and out, and trying to concentrate on the spell. She closed her eyes and...

"I can't do it."

Ndeye tossed her wand onto the chair.

"I can't do it, Leaf," she said. "I don't want to see you like that. I don't want to take away your independence."

"But I-"

"I know _you're_ fine with it," she said. "I just like you the way you are. I don't want you to have to change."

I sighed. "I understand... But I can't pass myself off as human anymore. I feel like I'm lying about myself."

Ndeye's father sat down on the sofa.

"All right, you two. How are we going to explain why we have an untamed monster living in our house?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Leaf, is it?" said Ndeye's aunt. She seemed a little apprehensive, and I don't blame her.

"Yes," said Ndeye's mother. "He's a monster we found. He's very talented."

"Oh? At what?"

Ndeye looked around the room.

"At the computer."

She gestured toward a flat glowing slab on the table.

"Yes," her mom said. "Many monsters have natural talents. Leaf is very good at computers."

I figured I should walk over to the computer and try to use it, but I had never even seen one before. I looked frantically at Ndeye for some sort of hint.

"It's interesting that a monster would know so much about them", said Ndeye, taking care to not look in my direction. "They don't use any magic at all."

Well, now I knew I was in trouble. I sat down at the desk anyway.

"Okay. As you can see, the computer is on right now." I pointed at the glowing letters. "There are only letters on the top of the computer. That's because it just turned on and the letters haven't filled up the bottom yet."

I could tell Ndeye's aunt was baffled. Clearly I had made a huge mistake. But I figured, on the off chance that I somehow hadn't blown my cover, I might as well keep going.

"There are letters on this board too," I said, pointing at a flat board with buttons next to the computer. "The letters are all in the wrong order. This is because it's random. That way, if someone steals it, you know it was yours that they stole."

I turned back to the computer. "Now I'll tell the computer hi. First I have to take control of the glowing letters."

I made a point of pressing the "control" button.

"All right, that should do the trick."

Next, I typed in H, E, L, L, O, and the letters "hello" showed up, but that was all.

"So the computer isn't responding to me," I said. "That's not because it's not polite. It's just shy because it hasn't met me yet. But computers talk to each other. So if I make friends with more computers, they'll get to know me."

The aunt turned to Ndeye.

"He doesn't do computers, does he?"

"He just doesn't know our _human_ computers," she said, smiling. "But he has a lot of potential."


	9. Chapter 9

I was able to stay in the village once Ndeye set up a bedroom for me in the basement of her parents' house, but I didn't forget about my family back in the dungeon. Monsters didn't often celebrate birthdays, but the fall equinox was approaching, and Petals had been brought to us on the equinox several years prior. It had been weeks since I had seen my family. I was sure Clay would do something special for her, and I didn't want to miss it.

Besides, it occurred to me that although Clay and Petals knew I was moving in with Ndeye, they didn't know that she wasn't able to go through with the spell.

"So you're going back?" Ndeye asked.

"Yep," I said. "Don't worry about me, I'll be okay."

"I know. It's just... it seems so scary out there. There's magic everywhere. Anything can happen." She leaned against a wall. "Humans learn when they're young to never go into the wilderness. I don't think I could bring myself to leave the village even if I wanted to."

I picked up my bag and threw it around my shoulder. "You're really worried about me, aren't you? Am I just the kind of person people worry about?"

"It's not that," Ndeye said. "I've just gotten so used to you being around. And... Leaf?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think there's a chance we might be together... for a long time?"

"I guess I haven't thought about it much," I said.

"I have." Ndeye laughed to herself. "Sometimes I imagine us getting married, having kids..."

_Wait a minute._ "How would we have kids together?" I asked. "We're different species."

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "Magic stuff."

"Well..." I paused. "I want you to know how much it means to me. That you'd think about me in that way. I want you to know that the feeling is mutual."

We stood outside the doorway together for what seemed like an hour before I finally left and made my way back to the dungeon.


	10. Chapter 10

"Leaf! You're back!" exclaimed Petals as I walked through the front entrance of the dungeon.

"And you look... the same!" Clay said. "I thought they were going to make you into a helpless little pet!"

"Well, I was _hoping_ they would," I said. "Ndeye didn't want to do it. She didn't want to feel like I was powerless."

"Good," said Clay. "If you find that you have power, you should use it to help people, not throw it away to make yourself feel better. So... you're still together?"

I nodded.

"You know what?" Clay said, walking into the other room. "This might be good for you. She sounds like a good person."

Clay came back out, dragging the carcass of a giant insect in his mouth. Petals's eyes lit up.

"A megabug?"

Clay dropped in front of Petals. "These things are hard to track down," he said. "You can only really find one if it's already dead. I sniffed this one out a few days ago and kept it on ice."

"Could you open it up?" Petals asked me. "I wanna get at the guts."

I smiled. Petals was teasing me – she knew I didn't like touching raw meat, and neither did she. We were probably going to roast it over a fire later that night.

Petals turned to Clay. "We should stick some candles in it," she said. "Like humans do."

"Oh, I know!" I ran over, grabbed a torch from the wall, and stuck it into the megabug.

"Haha," Petals said. "Your human friend would probably think this was gross."

" _I_ think it's gross," I said, laughing. "You wait here; I'm gonna go set up a fire."

I went outside to gather some wood and start the fire. Clay met me out there a few minutes later. It was nighttime already, and the ground was covered in small beetles – perhaps the descendants of the one we were about to eat.

"Do you think you'll stay in the human village?" he asked. "Do you have a spot there?"

"I think so," I said. "I'm not trying to cover anything up anymore. They know I'm a monster. But they all see me as Ndeye's new pet, and we're not exactly in a rush to correct them."

Clay lay down on the grass. "Well," he said, "you _are_ the second-cutest monster in the neighborhood. After Petals, of course. And humans love cute."

"That's what I'm counting on," I said.

We looked out at the dungeon Clay and his friends had built. There was light coming from windows on the top floor. It looked like some of the monsters had already moved in.

"This place is my life," said Clay. "And I mean that literally. My life force is magically tied to the building now. I'll die when the building falls, and not a moment earlier. And same with all the other monsters inside."

He briefly looked back at the door.

"Well, except one." Clay turned to me. "I can't bind Petals's life force to the dungeon. I can't explain why. Really, the only thing I can think of is..." He sighed. "You and I, we have the same father. But our mother never told us who Petals's father was. Do you think she might be part... human?"

"...Wow." I had never even considered it. "How would you be able to tell?"

"I don't think we can know for sure," he said. "But it would explain a lot. She won't eat meat unless it's cooked."

"And she hasn't found her passion in life," I said. "Every other monster – myself included – knows by that age what they want to pursue."

"She wants a bit of everything," Clay said. "We're simple creatures compared to her. She has so much potential... Whether she's part human or not, she sure seems to think the way they do. I think she would be better off living in the human village."

Clay moved closer to me. He set his head in my lap, but kept his gaze on the fire.

"If she wants to live with you," he said, "will you take her?"

I could tell how worried he was about her. But he must have thought it would be for the best if she went with me.

"If that's what she wants," I said, "I'll look after her."

I got up to add a few branches to the fire. Clay stayed put and closed his eyes.

"I haven't told her yet," he said. "But I hope she agrees to come with you. I think she'll be happier there."


	11. Chapter 11

Petals handled the news pretty well, and she agreed to come back to the village with me. I was able to smuggle her in a bag. Gooey blob monsters like her snuck into the village all the time, so once she was there, she wouldn't attract a whole lot of attention. At least, I hoped not.

I introduced her to Ndeye first. Ndeye got incredibly excited and held Petals in her hands.

"You're so cute!" Ndeye said. "You look so small, though. How have you been able to survive?"

"My brothers protect me," said Petals. She glanced back at me, smiling.

"Leaf," Ndeye said to me. "You never told me you had family."

_Huh._ She was right. Was I really so self-absorbed that I never mentioned them?

"Leaf's always in his own head," said Petals. "I'm the same way. Our other sibling, Clay, he's more down-to-earth."

"So," Ndeye said. "Tell me about yourself."

"Hmm... When I was little, I always thought I would grow up to be a big slime boss in a huge dungeon. But you have to be very patient and wait for a long time in a dark room. I'm too restless."

"So what do you want to do now?" Ndeye asked.

"I don't know," said Petals. "And I'm kinda scared. Everyone else seems to know exactly what they want."

Ndeye gave Petals a hug. "Don't worry," she said. "I'm in the same boat as you. I don't know what I want to do either."


	12. Chapter 12

Petals and I spent a couple weeks together. At first we stuck together, talking about the weather, wondering how Clay was doing... But as time went on, Petals started to leave the house with Ndeye and explore the village. She became even more curious than I had been when I first arrived. I decided that I needed to shake things up and go out into town again.

Early in the morning one day, when the sun was shining but the streets were still empty, the three of us took a walk through the village. It was chilly outside, so I borrowed Ndeye's father's coat and held Petals in my arms to keep her warm.

We walked past a newsstand. I noticed Petals looking at the newspapers inside.

"It's still locked up," I told her. "It's too early in the morning, so there's nobody here to sell these to us."

She bounced out of my arms and squeezed through a small gap in the door.

"Petals! You're not supposed to be in there!" I said.

"I'm not gonna take anything," said Petals. "I just wanna read it."

I pulled her back out.

"You have to be careful," Ndeye said. "If you really want something to read, I'll find something. Okay?"

Petals groaned. "Fine."

We turned a corner and ducked into the first store that was open. The walls were covered in posters and all sorts of colorful books sat on the shelves. In the corner of the room were a couple of comfy-looking beanbag chairs.

Ndeye grabbed a book from the shelf. "These are called comics," said Ndeye. "They're little books with a bunch of drawings and dialogue between different characters."

She took a comic book from the shelf and showed it to Petals. A big smile broke out on Petals's face.

"Wow!" she said. "I had no idea it was possible to draw like this! Look at these faces, they're so cute!"

"I know!" said Ndeye. "This character is one of my favorites. He has such a funny expression when he's nervous."

I was about to sit down with them, but a human came out of a door and started to walk over to us. I quickly made my way over to a different shelf. Petals, though, stayed with Ndeye and the three of them struck up a conversation.

I picked up the first book I saw and paged through it. There was a human character wearing lots of metal and carrying a huge blade, and a giant reptilian monster destroying a city. _This is how they think of me,_ I thought to myself. _They just won't say it to my face._

After the human left, Ndeye walked over to me.

"You didn't talk to the shopkeeper with us," she said quietly. "Why not? Were you uncomfortable?"

In the corner of my eye, I saw Petals using a little stick to page through a book.

"It's not him I'm uncomfortable with," I said. "It's myself. I know the way humans talk about monsters when I'm not around. We're the ones who destroyed your society. The ones you still have to hide from."

"Leaf..." said Ndeye. "You must know they're not talking about _you._ "

"I might know in my head," I said, "but my heart won't listen. Every time anyone says the word 'monster', I picture myself."

Ndeye picked up the book I was looking through earlier.

"You see this dragon?" she said. "Her name is Scaleborne. Sure, she's the bad guy in _this_ story. But she lost all her kids to hunters who were looking for dragon scales. There's a whole series of comics where she's the hero. And that book your sister is reading? The characters in that one are all monsters, and that's a book written for _human_ kids."

She patted me on the back.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. I think most people understand how you feel."


	13. Chapter 13

A few days later, Ndeye finally convinced Petals and I to go outside on our own. The townspeople had gotten used to our presence, and they weren't as apprehensive around us as they used to be. I followed Petals as she rolled across the sidewalk like a wheel.

"Leaf, what's this building?"

She stopped and looked up. Unlike the surrounding buildings, this one was made of stone and seemed to have one large room at its center. It was also facing a different direction from the others – it wasn't aligned with the grid of the streets.

"Do you think we can go in?" Petals asked.

I checked the door. It was unlocked.

"I think it's open," I said.

Petals and I looked around the room. There wasn't much furniture – no chairs or tables – but there was a shelf with some shoes on it. I took my shoes and coat off and set them next to the others.

Petals looked up at me.

"Could you carry me? I don't want to get slime on the floor."

I picked her up and walked through the room.

"What is this place for?" I asked Petals.

"I think humans use this place for prayer," Petals said. She looked at the calligraphy on the walls. "It seems familiar to me somehow. Maybe someone took me here when I was younger."

She turned to me.

"Maybe it's true. Maybe I am part human."

I set her on one of the rugs and sat down on another. Petals closed her eyes. She looked so peaceful. I felt like she understood why the humans built this place. I couldn't seem to connect with it in the same way.

I heard someone walk through the door behind us. I looked back at him.

"Good morning," he said. He hung his coat on the rack, took off his shoes, and picked up a blanket from a box. Then he walked over to where Petals was sitting and set the blanket down next to her. Silently, she wrapped the blanket around herself.

The human turned to me. "Hello, Leaf. I'm Mohamadou. I'm the imam here – I lead the prayers every morning. Is this a friend of yours?"

"She's my sister," I said. "Her name is Petals." (Of course, all the humans knew who I was by this point.)

He looked down at Petals and smiled. "What brings you to this village?" he asked.

"I never knew my father," she said. "My brothers think he might have been a human. Is that even possible?"

Mohamadou stood up and walked over to the window. "A monster once came here with a human girl in tow. The monster said that she did not know who the father was, and he had likely been killed in the fighting. I took the child in and raised her.

"A couple of years later, she became quite ill. She began to exhibit unusual symptoms – her body would seem to briefly change or lose its shape. Unfortunately, none of our doctors or magicians were able to help her.

"One night, I went into her bedroom, looking for her. Instead, I found a small, soft, shapeless monster. I picked it up in my arms, and I knew – it was her.

"The girl I was raising had been born between two worlds – part human, part monster. Her metamorphoses had been the first sign of this. But now, it was clear that she was moving further and further away from humanity.

"Although I still loved her, I didn't think I could raise a monster child. I thought she deserved to live among her own kind. So I took her back to the wilderness. I found the same monster who had given her to me so many years before. She told me that she was the girl's mother, and agreed to raise her from that point on."

The imam walked back over and sat down with us.

"...Mohamadou?" asked Petals. "When that girl went back to live with the monsters... did she get a monster name?"

"Yes," said Mohamadou. "Her name was Petals."

* * *

I set Petals down on my bed in Ndeye's family's basement and wrapped one of my shirts around her.

"I don't remember anything from back then," Petals told me. "But I was two years old. It was a long time ago. And this place does feel familiar... If that girl really was me, then there are people in this town who knew me when I was a baby. I might even have family here."

I sat cross-legged on the floor next to her. "At the very least, there's Mohamadou," I said. "Everyone I've met has nothing but good things to say about him. If he's right about your identity, that means he raised you for the first two years of your life."

Petals rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. "Clay was right. I think I do belong here. I mean" – she glanced over at me – "not in your girlfriend's basement. But in this town."

"Yeah," I said. "I suppose you do."

But I wasn't so sure about myself.


	14. Chapter 14

Petals ended up living with Mohamadou and his family after all, in the same bedroom that she grew up in. He could never bring himself to change anything in that room, just in case she came back someday.

Eventually, Petals and I came to learn how it was possible for humans and monsters to have children together. And it came with some unfortunate news for Ndeye and me.

I sat down with her on the couch.

"What's wrong?" asked Ndeye.

I sighed. "I was talking with my sister. About how it was possible for her to exist, as the child of a human and a monster. And I don't know if you were thinking about having children someday, but... we won't be able to do it."

Ndeye seemed a little shocked. She stared into the distance. "Why not?" she asked.

"The mother has to be a monster," I told her. "It's the intrinsic magic of monsters that makes it work. A male monster will never be able to have kids with a human."

Ndeye reached for a pillow. I think she might have started to cry.

"I'm sorry. This must be hard on you."

She took a deep breath. "I didn't used to think that having kids was that important to me," she said. "But once we found out about Petals... for a little bit, I thought that maybe it was possible."

The next day, I was at a restaurant, sitting on my own. I had just finished eating the roast beef from the inside of the sandwich when Ndeye walked in and sat down at my table.

"Do you think I'm doing the right thing?" she asked. "Am I ever going to find someone else?"

"...Are you asking me if you should break up with me or not?" I said. "I don't think I can answer that for you."

"The thing is... it's just not about having kids. I realized that I haven't been thinking of you as the person you are. I've had this picture in my head of what the future will look like, and I've been projecting that onto you..."

Ndeye shifted over to another seat.

"You're like... an idealized figure in my mind."

"A lonely creature from a far away land," I said.

Ndeye nodded. "I don't think it's healthy for me to keep going with this relationship. I've got too much baggage wrapped up in it. I hope you understand."

Over the next few days, I packed up the belongings I had accumulated. I kept my clothes, but I gave most of my other things to my sister. I didn't think I should stay at Ndeye's house any longer. And the more I thought about it, the more I didn't think I could stay there at all.


	15. Chapter 15

I made the trek back to my brother's dungeon and snuck in when nobody was looking. I made my way down to the basement, which was lit only dimly by the magical torches on the wall. Large boulders were placed around the room, to put up an obstacle for anyone trying to make their way through.

I looked at the boulders for a while, thinking...

"Leaf? What are you doing here?"

I looked behind me. Clay had come down the stairs, wearing a light-up vest. He walked over to me slowly.

"Tell me the truth, Leaf," he said. "You going to cast a spell to turn yourself into a rock, weren't you?"

I sat down on one of the boulders and avoid eye contact. "How did you know?" I asked.

"This isn't the first time someone would have pulled that trick," he said. "My cousin had a bad breakup. I found him still hiding as a stray brick five years later. We all thought we was dead."

Clay hopped up onto one of the other boulders.

"I'm a little insulted you didn't even talk to me first," he continued. "I thought we were closer than that."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"You know what you need?" he told me. "You need to get out a bit. Socialize with the other monsters. I don't know if you know this, but they all like you."

"But what am I supposed to do? Just walk up to random people and make small talk? I don't even know what to talk about. Everyone here is into such weird stuff."

"Like human girls?" Clay asked.

" _Hey!_ She was the one who fell in love with _me._ "

"Anyway," said Clay, "I do have an idea. Meet me tomorrow at the field by the dragon bones."


	16. Chapter 16

The giant dragon skeleton made for a striking backdrop. The snow had started to fall – no doubt a magic spell intended to make the game more interesting.

The monsters had gathered to play an old sport that the humans have long since abandoned, if they ever even played it at all. It combines speed and power with tactics and strategy, consolidates its action into a few explosive moments, and adds an unnecessarily complex set of rules around throwing the ball forwards.

Most of the monsters playing that day had used shapeshifting spells to give themselves a human form: two legs and two arms. The rules specified the minimum and maximum weight of each monster, as well. Clay and Petals had never played the game, but I had plenty of experience.

That day, though, I was stuck being the referee.

"Do these clothes look weird?" I asked, putting on the black and white striped uniform. "I feel like even humans would think this was a strange design."

"Look at it this way," Clay said. "You have to look different than the players. And it's not like the _team_ is gonna wear that."

It was late afternoon when the game started. As halftime approached, the sun began to set in the west. Tulip, an old friend of my sister's, kept trying to throw the ball after he had run past where he started.

"I don't care what the rules are," he said. "If you throw that flag on me one more time, I'm just gonna eat it."

And he did. I threw my hat on the ground instead.

"That's not a thing!" he shouted from across the field.

"Yeah it is!" I shouted back. "It's in the rulebook!"

Both teams were sharing one person to handle kicking and punting. His name was Sandstone, and he was the only monster on the field that day who had any real experience kicking things. Unfortunately, Sandstone had a tendency to ignore both teams' coaches and try to run with the ball instead. He ended up scoring zero points and conceding two before the coaches decided not to bother with kicking any more.

The only other things I remember from that game are the final score – the mammals won, 22 to 14 – and the coach of the reptilian team, a serpentine monster named Lettuce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scoring plays
> 
> 1st
> 
> 13:11 – Mammals TD  
> Snowball 6 yd pass from Tulip  
> Extra point attempt fails
> 
> 5:54 – Reptiles TD  
> Blades 19 yd pass from River   
> Extra point attempt fails
> 
> 2nd
> 
> 8:32 – Mammals safety
> 
> 3rd
> 
> 10:55 – Mammals TD  
> Tulip 3 yd pass from Cloud  
> Cloud run for two-point conversion
> 
> 4th
> 
> 14:01 – Mammals TD  
> Snowball 10 yd pass from Cloud   
> Two-point conversion attempt fails (Cloud run)
> 
> 9:55 – Reptiles TD  
> Magnolia 29 yd pass from River  
> River pass to Blades for two-point conversion


	17. Chapter 17

Over the years, Lettuce and Sandstone became close friends of mine – honestly, they were the first real friends from the monster world I'd ever had. For almost a decade, we shared a home dug out of the inside of an old tree. Lettuce was an alchemist, and Sandstone became a skilled goldsmith, making and selling decorations and electrical wire.

I could tell a whole other story about the three of us, but I'm sure either of them would be able to tell it better than I would. For now, suffice it to say that Sandstone had gotten in the habit of visiting a nearby human settlement, and Lettuce and I got pulled back into the realm of human affairs in our attempts to protect him from himself.

As I accompanied them on visits to the human village, I became known among the monsters for my understanding of humans and my ability to converse with them. And so it was that I was offered the highest possible honor in monster society.

"Leaf!" Sandstone came running into the room. "I just saw my father."

"What's he doing here?" Lettuce asked. "Doesn't an immortal have better places to be?"

Sandstone sat on the floor, out of breath from running so quickly. "He wants to give you his immortality, Leaf."

I was shocked.

"...I can't possibly accept it," I said.

Lettuce looked at me. "What do you mean? Why not?"

"Becoming immortal is the peak of monster existence," I said. "It means that you've been the ideal monster. That you've set an example for all monsters to follow."

"And you haven't?" Sandstone asked.

"I don't _want_ to be an exemplar of monster society," I explained. "I want to be judged on _human_ standards. If I become one of the most powerful monsters in the world, that just pulls me further away from them."

Sandstone stood up. "The reason my dad wants you to have his immortality is _because_ of your connection to the humans."

"You might not think like one of them," Lettuce said, "But you can connect with them. You can _understand_ how they think."

I pulled my tail around onto my lap and hugged it tightly.

"Maybe you can't _be_ a human, Leaf," said Lettuce, "but you can be the best version of yourself."

"You want – you _need_ _–_ humans to like you," Sandstone said. "That's your passion. That's the one thing that drives every decision you make."

Lettuce nodded. "And you've been able to take your obsession and convert it into something positive. Not everyone can do that."


	18. Chapter 18

Sandstone's father, Pinecone, sat next to me. They say he was almost two hundred years old, but he still looked like he was in his thirties.

"Let me ask you a couple of things, Leaf. I want you to understand why I chose you."

I nodded.

"Do you think – if you had the power that comes with immortality – that you would be able to help humans? To make them happier or safer?"

"I think so," I said.

"Do you think you would be able to help other monsters understand humans?"

"Yeah."

"Can you think of anyone else who could do a better job?"

I thought for a second. "My sister understands humans. But I don't think the other monsters would take her seriously. She's lived in the human world for quite some time."

Pinecone took off a pendant that he had been wearing under his striped robe. It was circular, with three differently colored sections.

"If you want to achieve your true potential," he said to me, "you need three things. First, you must be passionate about what you want to do. Second, you have to become the best in the world at doing it. And third, you need the resources."

He slid the pendant over to me.

"You have the first two. I can give you the third."

I took the pendant in my hand.

"This isn't the artifact, is it? Once you give it – the _real_ artifact – to me, won't you die?"

"Only in a certain sense," he said. "Once you've become the owner of an Artifact of Immortality, a piece of your soul will remain with it forever."

I took a deep breath.

"If you're willing to go through with this... so am I."

Pinecone stood up slowly. I nervously walked over to him. Pinecone passed his robe to me, and I put it on. He put his hand on my heart and smiled one last time as he faded away…

* * *

"Leaf!"

I turned around to see Lettuce and Clay standing in the door.

"Where- where am I?"

"You're in my bedroom," Clay said. "You just appeared... Is that Pinecone's robe?"

I looked down at my hands. A brown stripe had been added to the bottom of the sleeves.

_Pinecone... You barely even knew me, and you gave up everything_.

"You actually went through with it," said Clay. "I'm proud of you. I really am."

I walked down to the shore of a nearby lake. My robe and ears fluttered in the wind. I expected to be alone, but instead I saw someone already sitting on the bench. He turned around to look at me.

"This was always my favorite spot too," Pinecone said.

I sat down next to him.

"Are you really here?" I asked. "Or are you just in my mind?"

Pinecone chuckled. "I'm just a spirit in the robe. One among many others."

I looked out at the lake. Somehow I understood how the spirits worked, even though I couldn't explain it. "So you can only appear when I want you to?"

"Of course," he said. "Trust me, there are spirits in this robe who you do _not_ want to talk to."

"Don't they say that the purpose of immortality is to achieve complete independence from anyone else?" I asked. "To live your own life? Then why would you want to give that up, and become beholden to me?"

Pinecone leaned back. "After a certain point, you realize that being immortal also means being alone. The world moved past me, Leaf. I was still living in the past. And someday it will move past you."

"Somehow," I told him, "I find that comforting."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mechanics of Immortality
> 
> There are certain magical artifacts that grant immortality to the monster who possesses them. These artifacts cannot be stolen or destroyed – they will always find their way back to their rightful owner.  
> A monster who has become immortal is protected not only from death, but also from serious pain or injury.
> 
> If a monster does not want to be immortal anymore, they have two choices:  
>  1\. They can abandon the artifact that makes them immortal, if they do so intentionally and of their own free will. The monster will then resume aging at a normal rate. Eventually, another monster will find the artifact.  
>  2\. They can give up their physical presence in the world and become part of the artifact. This allows them to control who the next owner of the artifact will be.
> 
> The owner can call upon any of the spirits in the artifact at any time and delegate abilities to them as needed. This includes the ability for an artifact’s current owner to channel a previous owner’s spirit through their own body. (Used in conjunction with a shapeshifting spell, this can effectively bring a previous owner back to life.)


	19. Chapter 19

As one of the two dozen immortal beings in the realm, I was an _ex officio_ member of the Council of Monsterhood. Not all of the members thought I was deserving of the post, but eventually they agreed that I was capable of doing what Pinecone had hoped I would do. I was to be the monsters' ambassador to humankind.

Part of my duty as an ambassador was to live in the human capital – the same village where I had lived years earlier. And as the first ambassador the monsters had sent in over a hundred years, I expected to be met with fanfare and possibly a good deal of suspicion.

But instead, I was greeted by two people.

The humans' protocol, as I later learned, had an elegant symbolism. Two humans would arrive to escort the monster into the village: a magician, representing war (magic being the humans' primary weapon against monsters), and a priest, representing peace.

The magician was Ndeye, and the priest was Petals.

"I was hoping it was you," Ndeye said. "I've heard a lot about you since you left."

"What did you hear?" I asked.

Ndeye smiled. "They like you, Leaf. They see what a good influence you are on the others."

Petals slithered up to me. She was wearing a cute headscarf – or maybe it was just a regular scarf, wrapped around her whole body.

"Ndeye is the best magician in town!" she said. "She's got all sorts of spells."

"And what about you?" I asked.

"Well, the mosque has gotten pretty busy," she said, "and long story short, I'm kind of a priest now! I mean, I lead prayers sometimes, and I talk to a lot of people. It's nice."

I looked around. I didn't see anyone else. "They must have trusted me, if they only sent the two of you."

"All these years," Ndeye said, "and you're still worried about how you come off."

I turned to Ndeye. "How are you doing?" I asked. "I hope me being here doesn't cause any awkward feelings."

Ndeye pulled out a small computer from her pocket. "I'm doing great. I'm teaching magic at the school now. You see the kid third from the right? That's my daughter."

I looked at the screen. There must have been thirty kids in the picture. Everyone was wearing costumes, and Ndeye's kid was dressed up as a dragon.

"Magic is my passion," Ndeye said. "I love sharing it."

I smiled. "I like her outfit," I said.

Ndeye laughed. "Don't tell my husband you said that. He puts _way_ too much effort into those... I'm kidding, of course. That's actually how we met."

"Oh, Leaf!" Petals said. "I wanted to ask you. Did you ever get married? Because if you want me to do a wedding..."

"Haha. No, I'm single." I put my hands in my pockets. "I don't know if an immortal being can even have a healthy, equal relationship with someone."

"Well, you never know," Ndeye said. "Maybe someone will come along. After all, you've got plenty of time."


	20. Appendix

## Humans

Humans live in towns and cities, which are much larger than monster settlements.

Humans can use magic just as well as monsters can, but they are highly resistant to it. It is impossible to cast a spell on a human, although they can be affected by spells that monsters use to disguise themselves or escape attention.

### History

The first humans arrived on the planet long before the monsters did, when a group of scientists from western Africa found themselves trapped in another dimension.

The humans built a large industrial society over many years. However, when the monsters arrived, many human settlements were destroyed. The remaining humans learned to channel the magic of their new world so they could fight back.

### Technology

When they came from Earth, the humans brought with them their knowledge of computers. Humans still build computers today, and use them to watch videos, play games, and make music. Unfortunately, they can’t connect different cities together like they did back on Earth, because monsters keep tearing up the cables and wrecking the towers.

## Monsters

Monsters come from a long lost, far away planet. They use their magic to travel through different dimensions and populate (or take over) new worlds.

Monsters are as intelligent as humans, but they’re very one-dimensional. Every monster has one central idea in their head – an obsession that drives all their actions.

###  Society 

Monster society is anarchic and highly individualistic. There are no laws; a monster's will can only be enforced through diplomacy or violence. The most powerful monsters are those who possess a relic that makes them immortal; other monsters sometimes try to protect themselves through spells or fortresses.

The Council of Monsterhood, an informal group of monsters who have achieved immortality, is theoretically the most powerful group in monster society, although its actual power is quite limited; its members are in constant disagreement on almost everything.

Monsters rapidly develop and learn new languages; many groups of monsters have their own languages they use among themselves. When speaking to other monsters, they’ll usually fall back to French, the language spoken by humans.

### Biology

Every monster's body looks different. Even siblings from the same mother and father can have completely different skeletons, although they may have certain shared features.

Because monsters are magical beings, they can use magic to shapeshift (themselves, or their enemies.) Monsters can also have children with other species, as long as it's the monster who bears the child. The child will likely switch back and forth between species until settling on one or the other.

Monsters can only digest meat. Sometimes they get this from animals native to the planet they live on. Many monsters see no problem with eating humans; however, humans are considered difficult to catch, and not appetizing enough to be worth it.

### Culture

Monsters usually live in small groups of 3 to 6, often with their own close relatives.

Monsters often think about death; some monsters will even specify who should get to eat their body after they die. Refusing to eat a monster's flesh is considered an insult.

Because monsters can die so easily, they don't have a life expectancy; they have a half-life – how old they'll get before there's a 50% chance that they're still alive.


End file.
